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National Herald case : High Court allows IT probe against Sonia, Rahul

by India Blooms News Service 12 May 2017, 11:24 am

New Delhi, May 12 (IBNS) : In a significant development , the Delhi High Court on Friday, okayed an Income Tax investigation into Young Indian Private Limited in which Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi are directors and majority, stake holders, reports said.

The court order allowing such a probe is likely to add to the woes of the already beleaguered Congress and give the BJP political leverage. 

The mother-son duo has  been accused of conspiring to "cheat and misappropriate funds" by paying Rs 50 lakh through which Young Indian Pvt. Ltd obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which Associate Journals Ltd (AJL) owed to the Congress.

Associated Journals Limited was the publisher of three newspapers, including the National Herald, an English daily founded and edited by Jawaharlal Nehru before he became India's first Prime Minister.

In 2008, the company shut down with an alleged unpaid debt of about $ 15 million.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has accused Sonia and Rahul Gandhi f setting up Young Indian Company to buy the debt using Congress party funds even though Associated Journals, having assets  worth 335 million dollars would have been able to clear the debt.

 Swamy alleged that the Young Indian Company then owned all of the equity in Associated Journals and rented out its properties to profit its shareholders.

The Gandhis in January 2016 won an appeal to be exempted from personal appearances in court to answer allegations that they used  the Congress to misuse about $15 million of party funds for personal profit.